“You’ve got to get up here to the First Baptist Church. They’ve got one of the best-looking groomsmen in this wedding…” After what she’d heard her sister say, Barbara quickly set the rotary phone on the table and pleaded with their mother to drive her the short distance to the church. The August heat hung heavily over the sanctuary, but Barbara never noticed. She couldn’t take her eyes off of Randy Owen. Her sister had been right when she described him as “dreamy,” especially those baby blue eyes.
“After the wedding was over, neither of us had a ride home,” recalled Barbara. “You have to remember this was the 1960s — we all piled into the back seat of a car. So when I climbed in, I ended up sitting on Randy’s lap. I only lived about 1 mile from the church. I was good friends with the people Randy was staying with, so when I got back home, I called their rotary phone and asked if he could look in the back of the vehicle for my gloves. The truth was, I hadn’t worn any, but I just had to see him again.”
Barbara would soon be returning to her teaching position in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Randy would be leaving for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), where he was pursuing a degree in engineering. As fate would have it, that first encounter sparked a love story that has spanned 57 years.
Years later, when friends removed that rotary phone for remodeling, they gifted it to the Owens for Christmas as a reminder of that first phone call. In fact, the home where the Owens now live is the exact home where their love story began, and so their driveway is where the two discovered “love at first sight.”
“When my mother passed, we moved back to my childhood home. So, we are back to where it all happened 57 years ago. That Christmas, only a few short months after we met, Randy gave me a ring and asked me to marry him.”
They began traveling the treacherous mountain roads between Knoxville and Charlotte prior to Interstate 40 being built so they could see one another and were married the next August in 1968. After Randy graduated from UTK, the newlyweds moved to Florida for two years but longed to be near family, so they moved to Randy’s childhood home in Nashville. Two years later, they moved back to Shelbyville, where Randy opened the Randy Owen Insurance Agency on the square until his retirement 47 years later.
Barbara said, “My father was Dr. Taylor Farrar. He was an Army doctor, and my mother, Macye, was an Army nurse. They moved to Shelbyville in 1945 to open his medical practice. He was also the team physician for the Shelbyville Central High School Golden Eagle football team for 47 years. My dad’s office was located where they are currently remodeling the building for the Grindstone Cowboy, and Randy’s office was on the opposite corner. For most of my life, my livelihood has come from the ‘square’ around the Bedford County Courthouse. First from my dad and then later from Randy. We are also both members of the Shelbyville First United Methodist Church, so most of our life revolves around this square.”
Barbara earned a teaching degree from UTK and a master’s in special education from Middle Tennessee State University. Before her retirement, she taught in special education for 42 years. For the last 32 years, she has played the piano and the organ at the Whiteside United Methodist Church.
Though the Owens didn’t have children, their family consists of 18 nieces and nephews that they have loved and adored as their own.
“We have three sets of twins, and my daddy was a twin. We have a boy and a girl twin, plus two girls and two boys. They are all part of our family. We’ve changed their diapers, carried them back and forth to school, and attended countless school and sporting events. So, though we didn’t have children, we never missed out on being parents,” said Barbara.
Not only have the Owens invested their lives into their extended family, but they have also loved and nurtured the less fortunate through the community soup kitchen that the Shelbyville First United Methodist Church started several years ago.
Barbara recalled, “That first night, we fixed enough food to feed 100 people, and maybe 20 people came to eat. We packed it up and delivered it to others within our community.”
When it comes to relationship advice, Randy said, “Get involved in a church,” to which Barbara added, “Yes! Because that’s where you become close to each other as a couple, grow in your faith, make dear friends, and, of course, draw nearer to God. Our lives have been richly blessed and centered around our church, where it has been our mission to love and serve others around us.” GN
